Vulnerability and Companionship
by Karen Hikari
Summary: "The nightmares," Hazel blurted out. "The nightmares. How do you―" "What are you talking about?" Annabeth interrupted her. "The nightmares of Tartarus," she said, almost in a whisper, the memory of Nico's refrained screams after being woken up by a night terror vividly burnt into her mind.


**Hi! Remember months and probably almost a year ago when I wrote "With both Life and Heart" and I said there'd be a story concerning Hazel and Annabeth? Well, yes, it took _way_ longer than I thought it'd take, but... life got in a the way.**

 **Anyways, writing a story in which Annabeth was caring towards Hazel on a personal level and exams and... yeah.**

 **So, to not make this any longer than it already was, here it goes... Annabeth and Hazel bonding!**

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 ** _Vulnerability and Companionship_**

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If there was one thing Hazel Levesque felt towards Annabeth Chase, that was admiration―not only was the daughter of Athena beautiful and confident, but she was also someone to whom others looked up to, someone that could give orders and rest assured that they'd be followed.

However, and although Hazel was very fond of the daughter of Athena, she also understood why others found her intimidating and aloof.

They had never been close, despite the world-saving they'd done together. Yes, they trusted each other―they had _learned_ , almost been forced to do so, given how they had common enemies and similar goals. Yet, they didn't know each other very much and, next to Annabeth, Hazel felt like the clumsy, girl that she'd been back to her arrival at Camp Jupiter.

Sure enough, Hazel knew she shouldn't feel that way―Annabeth had a good heart, a warm smile that she allowed herself to show only to the ones close to her. She wasn't as mean as the scowl on her forehead made her appear to be, she wasn't callous and she feel threatened by her.

Hazel had seen the vulnerable side of her, she'd watch her lean on Percy for support when her injured ankle hurt her, she'd seen her laugh care-freely while she sat at the Athena table and chatted with her siblings, she'd heard Annabeth's breathing become heavy and her brow furrow, deep in concentration, as she plotted a strategy to get them all out alive.

Sure enough, Hazel might have not been close to Annabeth, but she _knew_ her―she knew her well enough to notice the dark bags under Annabeth's eyes that seemed to be growing by the second, she'd seen her stare blankly at the whiteboard while she explained Latin to the Greek demigods, as if she had suddenly forgotten what she was talking about and was instead remembering something that she didn't want to bring back to her memory. And Hazel, too, had noticed the way in which Annabeth asked for little food to the nymphs and left more than half of it on her plate.

Hazel knew about all of is because she had payed close attention to her friend's behavior and, more importantly, because that was exactly what she saw when she looked back at Nico.

It had been almost two month since Gaea's defeat and, despite the normal attitude everyone was trying to put up the scars ―and the open wounds, too― of the still-recent war were much too visible.

Besides, the daughter of Pluto knew that it was ―and always would be― harder for some of the heroes than for others.

Nico, Annabeth and Percy had gone through Tartarus, they had seen the horrors of the Greek Hell, yet they somehow still managed to continue waking up in the morning and be functional, no matter how many times the nightmares had tortured them during the night, no matter the unwanted memories that lurked around every corner and haunted them.

She was worried, of course Hazel was worried about all of them.

However, Percy and Annabeth seemed to be taking that low-blow better than her brother, which was no surprise―they'd faced Tartarus together, they knew the horrors they'd encountered down there and now they had each other to cling to for support, they had someone next to them who _understood_.

Nico had no one, and that statement, though it sent a strong pang of guilt and hurt through Hazel's body, was now truer than ever. It wasn't that Nico was actually alone, it was simply that Hazel understood why he'd feel that way―he had seen monstrosities only a few had survived, and unlike Annabeth or Percy, he couldn't go to someone that he trusted completely and know that said person would understand what he was talking about. Going to Percy and Annabeth most likely felt to Nico as an intrusion.

Still, that thought didn't only leave Hazel feeling guilty, but it also ignited a strong decision in her heart―she _had_ to show Nico that he wasn't alone, not anymore. Even when she didn't understand what had happened down there she was there for him, willing to listen to whatever he had to say or, if that's what he needed, she was there to not say anything at all and simply stay by his side. She was willing to do anything to prove herself in the eyes of her brother.

That was why, personal as the question was, intimidating as Annabeth seemed, Hazel had made her mind to walk up to the daughter of Athena and ask for her help. If only she possessed an ounce of the courage both Nico and Annabeth seemed to radiate.

Sure enough, she could have asked Percy, whom she knew better and who always had a smile on his face, unlike the daughter of Athena, but Hazel had a feeling that Nico wouldn't appreciate it if Percy so much as heard of him having trouble with sleeping.

Her brother might be over his feelings towards the son of Poseidon, but perhaps it was still better to keep Percy out of the matter.

Hazel had asked Annabeth to meet her at the lake after breakfast, and despite the daughter of Athena's raised eyebrow and inquisitive look, she had agreed.

"You wanted to see me?" Annabeth asked from behind her, startling the Roman girl.

"Oh, Annabeth!" Hazel let out. "I―I… yes, yes, I wanted to… I mean… can I ask you a question?"

"You already did," Annabeth deadpanned and then, noticing how the girl's face fell, she added. "What is it Hazel?"

"I… I _need_ to ask you something," she corrected herself, fidgeting. "You don't have to answer, though if it makes you feel―"

"If I don't have to answer then why are you even asking?" the daughter of Athena cut her bluntly, only to sigh as she saw the way Hazel jumped with her words. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound… Just tell me what it is, Hazel, please."

"I probably shouldn't ask, I know, but I was wondering if you…"

"My gods, Hazel, get it over with!" Annabeth thundered, grimacing at her own tone of voice. She'd never been good when it came to talking or with words―not with spoken ones, at least. She did just fine when it came to writing feelings down. On the other hand, she wasn't known for her patience either. Lately, though, she found herself unable to follow a conversation for longer than a few minutes without snapping. "Never mind me," she muttered. "I'm sorry, just… just tell me already, okay? I'll answer the best I can."

"The nightmares," Hazel blurted out. "The nightmares. How do you―"

"What are you talking about?" Annabeth interrupted her, not to lose the habit. This time, however, the impotence she felt, the fear she'd been concealing for so long she couldn't even remember not having lived with it gave Hazel the strength to stand her ground and continue going.

"The nightmares of Tartarus," she said, almost in a whisper that sounded like an accusation to the daughter of Athena. "Don't give me that look, Annabeth, I know you have them too, I―"

"What if it's so?" Annabeth inquired in an icy tone. "That's none of your business."

"I'm worried, Annabeth, so, so worried," Hazel lamented as she felt tears gather at the bottom of her eyes. She'd taken a two-month long vacation from Camp Jupiter, arguing that someone had to train the Greek demigods in Roman sword-fighting now that things had cooled down a bit. Secretly, though, she wanted to keep an eye on her brother.

She had been the Greek camp barely two weeks and not one night had gone by without Nico waking up mumbling things or with a gasp.

He didn't scream. He never screamed, but Hazel was a light sleeper, and she couldn't help being woken up by the tossing and turning in the bed across from hers.

She hadn't dared do anything, not until then. She had pretended to be asleep every single night, she'd turned a deaf ear to Nico's heavy breathing and agitation and, on the few nights in which she'd heard her brother cry, she had forced herself to remain where she was, unmoving, feeling crystal tears of her own run silently down her cheeks at her impotence.

She was tired. She was tired of the sickly feeling of anticipation with which she whispered 'Good night' to Nico before going to bed, silently thinking to herself 'What's good about it?'. She was _exhausted_ of not knowing what to do and she was _done_ with knowing her brother was aching barely two meters away from her while she was unable to do anything to help him.

"I don't know what to do," Hazel admitted coyly. "Nico keeps waking up, every night, every single night and I _know_ it's about Tartarus but I just… I don't know what to do or what to say and I… I can't take it anymore, I need to do something," she offered, not noticing the warm tears that had started to trace her cheeks.

Silently watching the hunched figure of the daughter of Pluto, Annabeth felt something that was almost panic raise up in her chest―she didn't know what Hazel expected from her.

Had it been someone else, she would have probably barked an order about not showing weakness and focusing, but this was Hazel―sweet, innocent, cheerful Hazel.

She shouldn't be crying like that, she had been through so much already, she had stopped a titan, all by herself, sacrificing her own life at the age of thirteen―she should at least be allowed the pieces of her torn-apart family so she could try to put the remaining members of it back in place.

And then it suddenly dwelled on her: she had fled her house at the age of seven, she had saved ―well, helped save anyways― the world twice, _she_ should be allowed a calm sleep or a dreamless one too, at the very least. Did Hypnos even know how to do his job or did he just didn't care and fell asleep while supposedly doing it?

But she was being selfish and there, staring back at Hazel ―small, crying, scared― she understood it, Hazel was only thirteen years old ―technically she was over seventy-something, but that was hard to remember given what she looked like at the moment―, there should have been someone there to protect her, to shield her innocent smile from the monsters and the god's wrath.

Annabeth was barely three years older, but, somehow, she felt responsible of Hazel's well-being, at least at that moment. Hazel could have gone to everyone seeking for comfort. Both camps loved her, she could have gone to Nico or to Percy or to Frank or to Leo―and instead she had chosen her, whom she didn't even know very well and who sucked so terribly at human interactions.

Duty wasn't something unknown to the daughter of Athena, and while many times she had wished her siblings or other people wouldn't look up to her so often, since it made her feel like she _needed_ to know everything and that she was responsible of every one of them, she had never voiced her thoughts, thus people continued to ask her for advice.

They rarely came to her crying, though.

There were two people that had ever done so, apart from a few accidental exceptions, and they weren't in the camp. Truth was, she had lost precious years that she could have shared with her paternal brothers Bobby and Mathew―most of their life she had been nothing more than a name, a shadowy figure that their father mentioned and their mother remembered.

But that was over.

She had gone back home with her father, she was no longer a year-around camper and she actually had a good relationship with her siblings―with all of her siblings, both from her mother and her father.

It suddenly struck her why Hazel's obvious suffering was affecting her so much―it reminded her of _them_ , of her baby brothers who would mark the calendar on the day she went back home and counted the days until then.

Nico was lucky as hell to have Hazel Levesque as his sister.

Annabeth couldn't help herself. Without even thinking what she was doing, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the daughter of Pluto's shoulders. It was clumsy―she had barely touched Hazel, after all. It was awkward ―she wasn't one for physical touch, but that didn't make it any less sincere.

Hazel clung to that, allowing herself to hide her damp face in the curve of Annabeth's shoulders as her sobs became more noticeable and her intakes of breath more violent.

"Hazel…" Annabeth let out softly, running her long fingers through the girl's curls, just like Thalia had done to her once upon a time, when she was woken up by imaginary spiders. "I don't have an answer," she whispered, almost stuttering, almost with guilt. "I―I don't… I don't know what to tell you."

To Annabeth's words, Hazel could only redouble her tears helplessly.

"I've been struggling with it myself, as you can see, I―I do not have a panacea to give you, I'm sorry," she continued. "But maybe… maybe I can give you a piece of advice―don't say anything if you don't know what to say, don't promise him it'll be alright, don't let him see how scared you are. Just be there, be there for him, let him know _you_ know and that, even if you don't understand what's going on, you'll be with him through it all. I'm aware he's usually the one who protects you, but it's your turn to keep him safe."

"I just―I don't know what to do. He… I'm so worried, he doesn't―"

"I know, Haz, I know," the daughter of Athena murmured, unaware that she had used a diminutive. She didn't bother to remember that the only person that she'd ever allowed to call her 'Annie' before Percy and her paternal half-siblings was Thalia as the daughter of Zeus held her in her arms. "But that is exactly why Nico is so blessed to have you. Sometimes, it's not about having the right answers, but about how hard you're willing to try to find them, about how willing to try and fail and try again you are."

 _Really?_ , Annabeth knew that was what Hazel must have been thinking. _That was the advice of a daughter of Athena?_ Her mother must have been disappointed.

"He is blessed to have you," Annabeth continued nonetheless. "You love your brother and anyone with half an eye can see that. That's enough. You're enough. You being there for him is better than anything I could advice you to do. You know I struggle with words and with showing feelings―you don't. And for that I admire you," she concluded softly.

At that, Hazel flinched―she must have heard wrong. Annabeth Chase couldn't possibly think so highly of her. There wasn't anything to admire in her, she was nothing special.

Still, when she stared back into Annabeth's eyes all she could see was sincerity. The daughter of Athena wasn't deceiving her.

"I… What?" she managed to choke out.

"You are enough," Annabeth smiled.

"I… thank you," the daughter of Pluto said in a voice thick with emotion.

They stared at each other for a moment, not saying anything, comforted merely by the presence of the other demigoddess, enjoying the feeling of companionship.

That was until a third figure came running up the hill.

"There you are!" Nico panted. "I've been looking for you everywhere!" he told Hazel and then, as if he had suddenly noticed Annabeth's presence he added. "Why are you together?"

Hazel sent her a pleading gaze, fearing, perhaps, that Annabeth would spill the beans and tell Nico what they had been talking about. The daughter of Athena, on her side, merely smiled down at her.

"You're not the only one around here who is fond of Hazel, Nico," she retorted, making the son of Hades huff at her, though he didn't say anything. "Actually," she said, a sudden idea lighting up her features. "There's this theatre in Brooklynn that will present _La Traviata_ next Friday and it just occurred to me that, perhaps, we could go and watch it together."

"Us three? Aren't you forgetting your dear boyfriend?" Nico replied with an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Percy? I've tried to convince him of going with me, but he's not interested in opera and, frankly, I would rather go to the play alone than having to explain every bit of it to him, for once, at least. Also, can you really picture Percy Jackson in a theater, silent and unmoving for two whole hours? Because I can't."

Not being able to stop himself, Nico snorted.

"That seems fair," he nodded. "We'll go with you," the son of Hades concluded, deeply burying the thought that _Un di felice eterea_ from _La Traviata_ was the song Maria and Hades used to sing as they prepared dinner, back to the 1940's, before World War II and before Maria's death. "That is, if Hazel is okay with it."

"Haz?" Annabeth questioned, a gleam that hadn't been there for months finding its way back to her eyes.

"Um…? Sure, I mean, why not?" the daughter of Pluto nodded.

"Then it's settled," Annabeth smiled, checking her watch. "Well, I should already be teaching Latin, so I'll leave you Underworld children to your own thing."

"Don't call us that," Nico rolled his eyes. Hazel giggled at his annoyance.

And then Annabeth did the most incredible thing in Hazel's honest opinion: she winked and walked straight over to Nico, just so she could ruffle his hair.

Nico, instead of straightforwardly killing her, merely _huffed_ in annoyance. And Annabeth laughed, loudly, genuinely.

"Whatever you say, kiddo," she offered, turning on her heels to leave.

"I'm older than you are!" Nico screamed, not seeming to care about the fact that Annabeth was already far enough to not listen to him. However, after rolling his eyes with a dramatic sigh, Nico smirked, his gaze still lost in the general direction in which the daughter of Athena had left.

Who knew, Hazel thought. Perhaps Annabeth was right and all they needed at the moment was one another, the firm knowledge that, even when the future ―and the past too― seemed grim, they were not alone. Perhaps that was what both camps needed, not just Nico and her.

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 **First of all, let's begin with the asterisks:**

 ***1: La Traviata, I don't know if I had ever mentioned this opera in a story in English, but I do use it quite a lot in Spanish, so here it goes. La Traviata is a wonderful, heartbreaking story based off on "The Lady of the Camellias" by Alexander Dumas son. It's a story of love and of hurt and of real love, which, sometimes, means letting go. I love the novel, I love the opera and, since Nico is Italian and so is this play and... I just can't get over it.**

 ***2: Un di felice eterea is one of the songs in this opera. It is one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever heard. I highly recommend you to watch this play. It is wonderful.**

 **Okay, so this is it for now. I really hope you enjoyed it and, if you did, please leave your thoughts in the comments!**


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